Report provides tiny picture of California gun crime

In 1995, amid the most violent period of California's history, an assemblyman and former sheriff's deputy from Elk Grove identified gaps in the statewide gun policy debate.

Thousands were being murdered across the state each year, but Larry Bowler argued it was still unclear how often guns or what types of guns were involved. He said lawmakers were torn between anecdotal, partisan and indirect research on gun-related crime.

He proposed the state Attorney General track gun-related crime and report its findings to the Legislature each year. Then, Bowler said, lawmakers would finally have "an accurate source of hard data upon which intelligent firearms policies" could be discussed.

His bill became law in 1996, and two years later, the Attorney General began reporting annual statistics on the illegal use of firearms in California. The office counted the number of guns used to kill people, aid robberies and help drug traffickers, and provided detailed information about the different types of guns.

How many were 12-gauge shotguns? How many were assault rifles? How many had serial numbers removed or silencers attached?

The reports were aimed at helping legislators improve California's gun laws, but now, with gun policy back at the forefront of public attention, they don't seem to share the spotlight. More research about gun-related crimes is accessible online, and the Attorney General's reports only examine a tiny sample of incidents.

Consider gun-related homicides in California. Between 2008 and 2011, the Attorney General's reports provided detailed information about 172 firearms involved in slayings. During the same period, law enforcement agencies across California reported that 5,324 murders had involved firearms.

The Attorney General's reports, called Firearms Used in the Commission of Crimes, examined less than 4 percent of gun-related murders across the state. And the statistical gap for other violent crimes was even wider.

While the reports examined 411 guns involved in non-homicide crimes over the period, local law enforcement agencies across California reported 76,000 robberies and 70,000 aggravated assaults involving firearms. (For fellow math nerds, 411 is about .3 percent of 146,000.)

Two factors determine the tiny amount of information in the Attorney General's reports. First, the office only tracks guns examined by forensic laboratories. If an illegal shooting occurs but no weapon is recovered, the incident wouldn't be counted in the AG report.

Bowler's law required that limitation. He argued back in 1995 that forensic labs would provide the best assessment of gun-related crimes because they have firearms experts.

But Bowler was surprised to learn another factor has narrowed the sample. The Attorney General's Office says the law he authored does not require local forensic labs to participate; the annual survey is voluntary.

"This is the first of these I've seen since they were first generated," Bowler wrote after being provided a copy of the office's 2010 report. "I do not recall that portion of the bill that is now deemed to not require the local laboratories to report the information."

Bowler said he didn't know whether he neglected to include a requirement that local labs participate or whether the provision had been removed during the legislative process. But in either case, he said the goal was a statewide assessment of gun-related crime.

Despite its narrow scope, the reports have been used to describe statewide trends in at least some cases.

Greg Pagan, chief counsel for the Assembly's public safety committee, said he has used them to gauge the impacts of past legislation. In 2004, for instance, the Legislature banned powerful .50-caliber rifles. Pagan said he cited the reports in legislative summaries, showing that no crimes in the state had involved the weapon.

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